


I Will Write 'I Love You'

by IrisofParadise



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Language Barrier, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:34:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7594690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisofParadise/pseuds/IrisofParadise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt tries to speak Russian. And fails at least twice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Write 'I Love You'

It had taken quite a while for Matt to feel comfortable speaking Russian. After months of downloading and deleting apps, after months of using google translate, and after months of trips to the library he finally felt like he could surprise Vladimir with speaking in the Russian’s native language. 

So it’s early in the morning, while he’s lying with his ear pressed over Vladimir’s heart, taking comfort in the steady beat, and one hand lightly tracing over the raised ink that drew out a star, that he says, “Volodya."

“Mm?” Comes the tired, half asleep moan from the Russian.

Matt can’t stop himself from smiling just a bit as he feels Vladimir’s fingers card through his sleep mussed hair. He lets his eyes flutter shut as he says in a false calm, only false because he is nervous about messing the words up, “Ya tebya yub’yu.”

And just like that the calmness of the morning is shattered like a gunshot through the dark. Vladimir’s heart races a bit and the Russian tenses like a tightly coiled spring. 

Matt hopes that it’s from surprise that he’s speaking Russian and not the fact that he’d just ‘I love you’. They had only said it a few times, not often. Mostly after an argument that turns physical when Matt comes home more bruised than normal because he seems to have no life preservation skills for himself.

Vladimir’s eyes widen as he wakes fully, then narrow as the words repeat themselves in his mind. He hopes that he had just misheard what the American had said.  “What?” He spits out darkly. 

Matt winces at the tone and stills. “What what? Я тебя убью,” he repeats. 

If he had hoped to make the Russian happy he is sorely disappointed when instead the blonde shoves him away, ignoring the startled yelp that Matt lets slip out, and stands from the bed. 

“Why?!” Vladimir spits out, grabbing his jeans from the floor and yanking them on. 

Matt’s brows furrow in confusion. “What? Volo-”

“Stop talking!” The blonde interrupts snappily, shoving his cellphone into his pocket. “What did I even do to you?! It is not even nine in the morning, Matthew!” He yells, accent thicker in his annoyance and confusion. 

The fact that Vladimir had yelled his name, not Matvey or Matt or Matyusha, makes Matt even more confused. But then the American begins to realize that he perhaps did not say the thing he was actually trying so hard to say. And instead of admitting it like any other person may, he instead scowls and, “You didn’t do the laundry! Again!”

It’s silent for a moment. 

And then Vladimir laughing in equal halves surprise and annoyance. “Excuse me?” He spits out incredulously. 

But Matt just shakes his head and slowly gets out of the bed in search of his boxers. “You never do the laundry,” he says, a small sweat breaking out on the back of his neck as he searches for lies. “The laundry has been piling up for days now.”

Vladimir felt his eye twitch as he watched Matt carefully get dressed. Then he scoffed and crossed his arms. “Then maybe I stay with Tolik! Since you want to kill me over the fucking laundry, мудак!” He shouts before he’s stomping out of the bedroom. 

Matt winces as the door is slammed shut and Vladimir continues to stomp his way out of the building. 

~oOo~

It takes four days before Matt makes a trip to Anatoly’s apartment where he apologizes for Vladimir to finally come back to Matt’s apartment. 

Another three for Matt to attempt speaking Russian once more.

It’s while Vladimir is cleaning the kitchen from where he had cooked and putting the leftover food away into the fridge with a quiet, “You take this to work tomorrow for lunch, yes?"

And Matt decides to try the words again. 

“Yeah, too bad for you.”

Once more, just like a few days ago, Vladimir freezes. Slowly he turns to face Matt, confusion painted across his face. “What?”

A pause where Matt’s expression slips into one of confusion. 

The blonde shakes his head, brows furrowed. “How is it too bad for me? I give you food. You take it?” 

Matt’s mouth dropped open and he tilted his head slightly. Then slowly shook it and muttered out, “Nothing, Vladimir. I’ll be back later.”

Vladimir just waved his hand, confusion never once leaving his face. “Da. Go- go get punched in face, milii moi.”

Matt gave a thumbs up gesture then slid his Daredevil mask over his head and left the apartment via the window. He could just barely hear as Vladimir began to once more clean the kitchen all the while muttering under his breath in rushed Russian. 

Matt could only understand the word, ‘идиот’, and he gave a sigh before deciding to go about his ‘night job’. He decided that he could worry about his Russian speaking skills later. 

It is quickly becoming apparent to him that he is doing something wrong when he attempts to speak the foreign language. 

~oOo~

Another week and a half pass when Matt tries once more to try saying the words he has been struggling with. 

He’s at work, Foggy meeting a client and Karen out getting lunch, and doing paperwork when he hears the Russian’s steady heartbeat and heavy footfalls practically stomping their way up the stairs, the smell of Starbucks coffee accompanying the Russian. 

The blind man can’t help the small smile that tugs at the corners of his mouth as the Russian enters the office without so much as a knock on the door. 

“Good morning! I bring coffee!” 

Matt raises an eyebrow. “You do realize that it is,” a quick feel to his watch, “nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. Right?”

Vladimir scoffs as he makes his way over to the desk that Matt is sitting at, Karen’s desk actually, and places the warm coffee into Matt’s hands. “I just woke up. Is morning for me, Matyusha.”

The lawyer just huffs out a laugh but takes a sip from the coffee, vanilla with a hint of caramel and whipped cream that is nearly all melted, and lets out an appreciative hum. Then averts his eyes downward to the desk and very slowly says, “Ye tebiyah lyooblyoo.” He winces slightly at his accent, already able to tell that he had said the words wrong. 

A moment of silence where Vladimir once again is confused. And Matt begins to flush slightly, uncomfortable with the Russian staring at him. 

But then Vladimir seems to register what the words being said are and he lets out a pleased hum. “Since when do you speak Russian? If you can call that speaking.”

Matt groans. 

“Is more like you are choking,” the blonde laughs out far too fondly.

The lawyer just scowls at him. “I’ve been trying to say that for weeks now. Remember?”

Silence. 

So Matt tries to remember exactly  _ how _ he had said it the first two times and says it. And scowls again when Vladimir bursts into loud laughter, far too amused for Matt's comfort. 

“You- you say ‘ub’yu’ instead of ‘lyublyu’!” Vladimir scoffs out with an eye roll and smirk. 

Matt just raises an eyebrow, confused. “So? Is that a different word?”

Vladimir shrugs, amused now that he knows it had been a mistake but trying to appear nonchalant. “You say you’ll kill me first time.”

The lawyer purses his lips and takes a small sip from his coffee. “Unfortunate,” he says dryly, ears and back of his neck heated in an embarrassed flush. “And the second time?”

Now Vladimir just shakes his head slowly, not really wanting to admit that it had been more his mistake than Matt’s at the time. He had assumed that the American didn’t know Russian and therefore never spoke it. So it was just habit for him to tune himself to listen for English when he was with Matt. 

And so when Matt had said “я тебя люблю”, his accent had been very thick, horrendously so, that Vladimir had just assumed that the younger man was speaking English and possibly mocking him a bit. 

But no, in actuality Matt just had a horrible accent. 

Vladimir just hums a bit as he thinks of what to say. And then settles with, “Your accent is shit.”

“...thank you. You asshole.”

The Russian smirks and tugs Matt closer by his tie. “We work on that, yes?”

“Duh.”

“...да…” Vladimir slowly corrects. He lets go of his boyfriend’s tie. “This is going to be lot less fun than I thought.” 

A moment passes where Vladimir slowly drums his fingers along the top of the desk. “‘Lyublyu’,” he tries slowly, being sure to enunciate for Matt. 

Matt raises an eyebrow but takes the hint. “Lyublyu?” He says slowly. 

Vladimir presses a quick kiss to his mouth. “Better. Again?”

The nod from the American is overly eager and the blonde can’t help the smirk that appears on his face. He’s just a breath away from pressing another kiss to Matt’s mouth when the door opens and Karen is entering. 

“I brought lun- oh! Should I uhm…” She gestures to the doorway. 

Matt huffs out a laugh. “No-” he begins at the same time that Vladimir snaps out an annoyed, “Да.” And Matt rolls his eyes, though the gesture goes unnoticed because of his glasses. “No, Karen.” He states firmly. He ignores the disappointed sigh from Vladimir. “What’s for lunch?”

“I got Thai from the place around the corner,” she says, pulling the container of pad kra tiem out of the bag and makes herself a plate. “I have never eaten so much take out until working here, you know that?” She says in an attempt to break the awkwardness that has settled in the office like a raincloud. 

Matt takes the plate of food she offers him. “Thai is good though. I prefer it over Chinese I think.”

“You know,” Karen begins as she makes Vladimir a plate of jasmine rice and a spring roll, “there’s this new Vietnamese place we should try out soon. It’s called ‘Phở King’ and-”

“That is what I would much rather be doing,” Vladimir scoffs out, reluctantly taking the plate from the bubbly blonde. 

Karen freezes, awkward grin planted in place. 

Matt just purses his lips and prays for Vladimir to just stop talking. “We’ll be in my office if you need us Karen. Thanks for lunch,” he holds up the plate then gestures for Vladimir to follow him to his personal office. 

Karen scoffs and gives an eye roll before saying teasingly, “I’ll try not to need you Matt. Have fun guys.” She laughs when Matt freezes and lets out a surprised sound. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is slightly based off of me and an incident that happened a few months ago at work. I had dropped one of our sample frames and yelled out 'Мудак' because apparently only Russian swearing made sense at the time.   
> Well, unbeknownst to me there was a lady from Siberia who heard me. And she comes over to me and says "Oh! You speak Russian?!" All excited. And I just stuttered out, "No! No, not really. Just a bit."   
> And so she asks me what all I know. And I only know like ten or twelve things maybe? And my accent was so terrible because I'm nervous as hell and so when I first said 'I love you' it came out sounding more like "Ya tebya yublyu" which made her almost die laughing and say, "Why do you need to know to say "I'll kill you"?" So I tried again and my accent was still horrible because of how nervous I was because I'm an idiot and it came out sounding like a really awkward, "Yah toobad foryou".   
> So of course, I had to have Matt fucking up Russian.  
> And as for 'Phở', it's pronounced as 'fuh' so when Karen says 'Phở King' it sounds like 'Fucking'. And yes. That is an actual restaurant. As is 'What the Phở '. Both are fab. But I just love phở in general.


End file.
